A true response would take way longer than the time they have and be much more personal than they wanted to know. The true answer is that most of the time it is great. It finally feels normal and I really like my classes and professors. But 15% of the time it straight up sucks. But no one wants to hear that college sucks. And if you are an optimist(like me) or a mathematician( not like me) my off-handed response of “really good” is an accurate average of my time away at school.

It’s widely said that a lot of a person’s personal growth and development happens during their college years. I don’t disagree. In my four months up at school, I know I have grown as an individual immensely. Just like those growing pains and growth spurts that you had as a kid, but instead these are emotional growth spurts, both of which sometimes hurt a lot.

People also say “Oh you will make lifelong friends in college.” Or my favorite, “The friends you make now will be your bridesmaids later!” No one tells you that for a while you will feel like you have fake friends and half friends. No one tells you that if you go to a place where you don’t know a soul, that sometimes it gets lonely. They never say, “You will start to wonder if you smell funny before you actually feel as though you have a couple solid friends.”

I think this provides many people with a false expectation for what college will be like. For example, fireworks will not go off in the background when you first meet your roommate and you will not be instant best friends. I know that I was not at all aware of the sub-clauses in those general comments everyone makes about college. I went into college thinking I would totally have it all together by day 10. Be involved, check. Make friends, check. Ace your classes, check. Grow, check. And by grow I do not mean in your waistline from the freshman 15, just to clarify.

Reality check: man was I mistaken. I never realized how much growing hurt. Being away from everyone I knew for close to 70 days, when I can’t think of a single time that I had spent without the presence of a familiar face before going to college, it hurt. I missed dinner with my family, doing homework and hearing my parents talk as they were preparing dinner, sharing a room with my sister, good morning hugs from my mom, I missed all of home. I missed the community of my small group, as I doubted that there was actually a single other Christian on the entire campus. I craved having someone with whom a look could be interpreted to speak 1000 words.

In the midst of this pain though, God always appeared. When I needed to meet another Christian on campus just to be reassured that they actually existed, in a totally random moment, I sat down next to one in a lecture. When it turned out that my dad had to fight a fire and couldn’t come to visit, two of my church friends from home to plan a trip to come visit. When I missed the companionship of my home friends, there was a friend waiting for me – I just needed to open my eyes and look around. God was always there in the pain of growing, and with his help I have grown with leaps and bounds.

I was also vastly unprepared for just exactly how long it would take to feel like I had really good friends. Even though I knew I was going somewhere where I wouldn’t know a soul, I thought, “It’s okay. I have already done this once before in high school when I went back to public school after homeschooling” what I failed to realize is that in high school I already knew some people. And they knew some people. So their friends became mutual friends and my friend circle expanded. In college it’s different. There is only one of me. I can only meet so many people and I can only spend quality getting to know you time with an even smaller number of people. I constantly have to remind myself to have grace with myself. Making friends takes a long time. Making best friends, let alone bridesmaid worthy friends, takes even longer. And in that long time, sometimes it gets a little lonely. But it’s okay. Everyone feels like that.

Give yourself grace, is what I have to keep reminding myself. Do you even remember how you made your last best friend? I know I can’t. Actually other than being nice, how does one make friends? I feel like it just happens naturally. Is there a point in time that marks the transition from friends to good friends to best friends? I think it all just takes time. It takes time to create the shared memories and inside jokes that come with a great friendship. It’s okay, friends will come with time. Hang in there.

I wrote this after first semester, and hesitated to put it up because it seemed really pessimistic, and that wasn’t what I wanted to portray-I knew it would get better, it was just slow going. Looking back on what I wrote after a full year under my belt, I still agree with what I was feeling, but I know it also gets better. Second semester I found my people-friends I knew were friends. I joined a sorority (though I never dreamed that I would), track season started, I found a home church, a bible study, and I became better friends with the people whom I had met during first semester. I knew how to juggle school, laundry, feeding myself, and having a social life way better. After two months of summer, though I am loving home, I miss my friends at school so much I almost wish school would start already just so I could see all my friends again. Wholeheartedly, I can say that school is great and I am really enjoying it.

Jumping for joy because life is good, school is over, and its finally summer.

In conclusion, a note to all the incoming college freshman-have grace with yourself. Realize its a big adjustment, and set your expectations accordingly. Have fun, and know that everything gets better after first semester. And a note to everyone who says, “College is the best time of your life!”-be careful, you might be creating false expectations in a nervous freshman’s mind. You might not remember the trials of the first couple weeks, because the good times have washed out all of those memories, but more than likely they were there.

Seeing as finals are in full swing, I figured what was a better use of my time than to post a reflection blog on my most thought-provoking class this semester. (Mom and Dad, I had it written way earlier, I’m just posting it now. Pinky promise.)

My life this past week preparing for finals and writing final papers. P.S. I love that my Bible is required to do some of my homework.

History and Literature of the New Testament is one of my most challenging classes this semester. Not because I don’t understand the material and do poorly on the tests, on the contrary I understand the material quite well and have done very well on the papers and exams. The struggle I have is that being the naïve freshman who I am, when I was searching for classes in August, I saw this class about the New Testament and thought, “How cool is that? We will read the entire New Testament and it will be a great way to encourage me to be diligent about spending time in the word daily!” Without hesitation, I signed up.

On the first day, the professor asked us, “What is the difference between the Old and New Testaments?” I thought, “Oh goodie, I know the answer to this question.” I waited for other people to respond for a little and then raised my hand and said something to the effect of, “The Old Testament is the time leading up to Jesus’ birth, in which many prophecies and promises were made, and the New Testament is after Jesus’ birth, and it documents his ministry and the effects of it, as well as the promises and prophecies made in the Old Testament coming true in the New Testament.” My professor responded and said, “Well some people believe that, but it is a very theological view of it…When answering in this class it is important to avoid speaking with theologically based answers” She went on to tell us the right answer, which was pretty darn close to what I had said. After that class, I was in a quandary. How was I going to answer questions with the answer she was looking for, when I only knew one answer, which apparently was too steeped in Christian theology? How could I disassociate what I had learned and believe to be true from how I answer questions on the New Testament? Was I going to be graded down if I accidentally said something that was too theological?

She assigned a twelve page self inventory on the first day of class due in a week; by next class four people had dropped, leaving twelve students in the class. I seriously debated dropping it as well. Subsequently I talked to some of the people who dropped, and they said it was just going to be too hard for them to not speak theologically, plus the twelve page paper did not motivate them to stay in the class either. So one week in, I wasn’t alone in my doubt.

While I was completing the paper, I happened to google my professor, as I wanted to see if she was a contributor to the textbook we were using. What I found was overwhelming at first. My professor had been an Episcopalian priest who was defrocked in 2009, for becoming a Muslim in 2006. Reading on, I found an interview in which she stated, “I am both Muslim and Christian, just like I’m both an American of African descent and a woman. I’m 100 percent both.” I was so surprised. My first thought was, “How does that even work? The two religions are fundamentally different.” My thoughts then progressed to “Oh my goodness, I’m taking a New Testament class from someone who is both Muslim and Christian. We are very possibly going to have differing opinions on many topics. Should I drop it?” Farther down in the article it mentions that, “She calls Christianity the ‘world religion of privilege.’” After reading that, I was so bummed. Here I am, a white, female, Christian, from Southern California, going to a prestigious private school in Washington, with a professor who believes that Christianity is the religion of privilege. Based off of my appearance and my much too theologically based answer on the first day, I was sure she had a great opinion of me.

I debated about dropping the class for two weeks. I dreaded going to class and having to monitor how I participated in class for theological biases, when all I know is theologically based. I felt that it was slightly ironic, being at a liberal arts college that strives to be inclusive of all people and beliefs, that I had to make sure to not over share what I knew and believed to be true about the New Testament. The only nice thing was that I knew to take whatever she said, and for that matter, whatever was in the textbook, with a grain of salt, because the class wasn’t taught from a theological background, as I had naïvely expected it to be.

In the end, I decided to not drop the class. I felt like God led me to be in that class for some reason, whether to strengthen my own faith, or be a witness to others, or something completely different, I felt called to stay. I have no idea whether I will get graded down for my Christian upbringing coming out in my opinions in my papers, since we haven’t gotten any back yet. Who knows? All I know is that it will all work out somehow.

It has taken me almost an entire semester to realize the beauty of this class being taught on my campus. I don’t go to a Christian school, in fact, 4 years ago, it was almost the opposite. Four years ago, there was a group of about ten believers that met on campus for fellowship. There might have been more who didn’t show up, but then in a student body of 2,500 is a small minority. Now there are about 200 believers that meet regularly between the three Christian clubs on campus. God is moving on this campus, and I’m so glad to be up here and be a part of it.

Anyway, when talking with my mom about this class, she said, “Linds, this might be a challenging class for you, but think about it. There are people in your class that are reading the New Testament for the first time. God’s word is present in your class and you have no idea how He will use this opportunity to impact lives.” She helped me see the beauty in the class, even though it might be a trial for me. There are twelve people who meet twice a week for an hour and a half to discuss the history of the New Testament, all while reading the entire New Testament as required reading. We all come different faiths and walks of life, but each of us is reading the Bible. Going to class is so much more joyful and exciting once I put my perspective in line with God’s greater plan.

I have a confession. Well, its more like a giant secret that I have held in so long, so close to my heart, that my parents don’t even know it. NO ONE knows it. I have always been afraid to reveal it, because of what society might think. Who am I kidding, it’s not what they will think, it is what they WILL SAY. We are so judgemental as society, and note I say we because I am totally included in this group. Though I try to work on it, it just naturally happens; I see someone and instantly categorize them based off of what they look like. It’s terrible.

Anyway, today I decided, I have had enough. I will not hide part of who I am any longer. So here it goes.

I want to be a plumber when I grow up. There I said it. I am just so fascinated by how all the pipes work together to deliver water to the various places in a house. How could someone even be smart enough to think of all that? And all the work in the dirt, mud, and water sounds right up my alley because I love the mud. And guess what? They only work when called and they get paid by the hour AND they get to charge whatever they want. Combine all of those positives and you have the recipe for my dream job.

Now, I know what you were thinking. Most people would think, “Okay, but why don’t you be a doctor or go to college first and then decide what you want to do?” Watch the spoken word video, linked below. If you are short on time, just watch the first two and a half minutes or so, otherwise I highly recommend watching the entire video. It is amazing and brings me to the verge of tears every time I watch it .

“If you can’t see anything beautiful about yourself then get a better mirror, look a little closer, stare a little longer, because there is something inside you that made you keep trying despite everyone who told you to quit” -one of my favorite quotes from the video

“They asked me what I wanted to be and then told me what not to be.” This is the epitome of the state of our education system in America. From day one of kindergarten, the expectation of the student is that they will grow up, go to high school, take a full load of AP classes, go to a prestigious college, and then become a doctor, engineer, or lawyer. The driving force behind every class, lecture, presentation, and guidance appointment in high school is to prepare students for college. Look even in recent news, and the Presidency is pushing for higher education(college of some type) for everyone. The attitude that comes out of this is that it is absurd for someone not to go to college. Completely absurd, in their minds.

Well, what happens when everyone starts going to college like society is encouraging and calling for? Many things. One, we lose people going into the job fields that don’t require a college degree, but still are necessary to keep society functioning. For example, my dad doesn’t have a college degree. Yet, he is a fire captain and has worked in the fire service for 17 years. He is on a National Disaster Management Team and gets sent all over the Western United States to manage the resources(people and machines) when fires and other natural disasters occur. He may not know how to help me with my AP Calculus homework, but he is one of the smartest people I know. So, remind me why everyone MUST go to college? So they can do well in the world? To that I ask what is the definition of doing well in the world, being happy, having money, or something else? It all depends on the person, whom defines how well they are doing for themselves.

Second, if everyone goes to college, then does it not just become a continuation of high school, and the only way to be competitive in the job market will now be to get a Masters or a PhD? It doesn’t make sense to encourage every student to go to college, putting themselves in debt, when every job does not require a college degree.

In my case, as I do not actually dream of being a plumber, I need to go to college to pursue a job in the field that I desire. I hope to major in Biology with an emphasis on genetics, because, in my opinion, genetics is the medicine of the future. Though I do not want to be a doctor, I do need to go to college in order to even have a chance of getting a job in genetics.

Simply put, we need to stop instilling in our kids that the only way to succeed in life is by going to college. There are other ways to succeed, and we need to be open to them. Some of the biggest advancements in our history have come from relatively “unschooled” people. Maybe its time we stop focusing on standards, and believing that without school education is impossible, and realizing that school isn’t the be all end all that it’s often cracked up to be. There are several ways to get to the one end that we all desire- a happy life.